I'm watching the NCAA basketball tournament. Maybe it's just me but it's DISGUSTING watching so many young men, at the height of their sports careers, who are festooned with TOO MANY tattoos. I've seen some of these guys who have both arms completely inked. Some have tats on their necks.
WHY?!?? What is the purpose of all those tattoos??
These are healthy young specimens, in the prime of their lives, and they are completely destroying the symmetrical beauty of their bodies by marking them up. It absolutely takes away from appreciation of their presence on the court.
Why would anyone do this to themselves? Have they considered that there is something to life other than basketball? I mean, they ARE in college to study matters that will presumably give them fuller and richer lives after graduation, yes? What are those tattoos going to bring about when these young men are having job interviews? Some employers would fast think that these aren't the people they are looking for.
It just looks nasty. It makes the team look cheap. I can't imagine Dean Smith approving of his team sporting tattoos. He would probably have instigated a policy barring anyone tatted from playing for UNC. As bad as things have gotten I think Mike Krzyewski would have eventually done the same at Duke. The reasoning would be sound: "If you don't care for how you look you probably won't care for how you make the team look."
Come on lads, stop doing this. Bring some dignity to the game but more important than that, bring some dignity to yourselves. Covering almost every spare square inch of your bodies with health-destroying ink is not glamorous or cool or really impressive at all. The young people of America are looking at you, more than you know. And they want to be the kind of people that you pose to be.
Don't give those kids reason to "follow the crowd" into self destruction.
